人民币升值、出口退税、贸易成本与出口增长

选取2008年全球金融危机后49组月度数据,采用协整与误差修正模型实证估计了汇率、出口退税以及贸易成本对我国出口的影响。研究表明,在短期,出口退税率上调与贸易成本下降对出口的综合激励效应会减弱人民币升值对出口的抑制效应;在长期,人民币升值通过有效调整出口商品结构也促进了出口增长。     

How much do tariffs matter? Evidence from the customs union of Belarus,Kazakhstan and Russia

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the early impact of the formation of the customs union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and associated changes in import schedules on the structure of imports. Relying on an original data-set of statutory tariffs we find that trade creation effects were significant only in trade between Russia and third countries, but that there was some trade destruction, with a significant negative impact on imports from China to Kazakhstan and Russia, and on imports from the EU to Belarus. However, the magnitude of this effect is relatively small, suggesting that the benefits of the new tariff policy per se are limited at best.     

不完全信息条件下商业集群形成的问题研究

商业集群在人们生活中所起的作用日益重要,针对国外许多大型商业集群,如购物中心等通常都建立在郊区的情形,文章借助于Salop.S.C的环形市场模型,对不完全信息条件下商业集群形成的原因进行了分析,得出的结论是:在不完全信息条件下,由于运输成本的存在,消费者对欲购商品的最优搜寻是从商业集群处开始。由于商业集群的魅力所在,就导致了消费者有可能舍近求远,直接到距离较远的商店集聚区进行购物,而不是选择在距离较近的孤立商店购物。据此给出的政策性建议是:当我们在进行城市建设规划时,在交通设施比较完备的条件下,为了节约市区的稀缺资源,可以有选择的在郊区建立一些商业集群,如大型购物中心等,这样既可以有效缓解市内交通拥堵的压力,也可以有效提高资源的配置效率。     

The effect of distance and road quality on food collection, marketing margins, and traders' wages: evidence from the former Zaire

Food price variation is typical of the food economies of many low income countries. The presence or absence of road infrastructure is perceived to be one of the main determinants of this variation. This analysis shows that in the case of the former Zaire, food price dispersion is significant both across products and across regions. It is demonstrated that transportation costs explain most of the differences in food prices between producer regions and that road quality is an important factor in the transportation costs. However, food prices decrease relatively faster than transportation costs increase and traders' wages are higher on bad roads.     

Masterful Meisters? Voluntary Certification and Quality in the German Crafts Sector

Voluntary certification systems potentially reduce search costs in markets with imperfect information. Service markets with many heterogeneous firms – such as the crafts market – are prone to information imperfections and can therefore potentially benefit from such informational mechanisms. We examine if the Meister qualification in the German crafts sector improves service quality as perceived by consumers. We find a significant and positive relationship between the Meister title and consumer ratings and conclude that the certificate is a credible sign of quality.     

中国各地区出口的信息传导机制研究

本文首次运用指向非循环图(DAG)方法排列出我国八个主要出口地区的出口同期因果关系,在此基础上进行结构VAR建模以及预测误差方差分解,进一步考察了各地区出口的信息传导过程.实证结果表明:北京、上海是我国出口的领导者;同处我国经济中心--\"长三角\"的上海、江苏和浙江的联系非常紧密;山东在我国的出口市场有着重要的连接作用;广东出口的辐射功能非常有限,这与它贸易大省的地位不相称.     

市场交易过程信息透明度与市场质量——来自上交所Level-2行情的证据

上海证券交易所(SSE)于2006年7月正式推出了Level-2行情,大大提高了市场透明度。此次透明度改革与2003年的透明度改革在透明度变化维度等三个方面存在区别。本文以上证180指数成分股为样本股票,利用面板数据研究了此次透明度变化对市场质量和不同投资者交易成本的影响。研究结果表明,此次透明度变化改善了市场质量,显著降低了个人投资者的交易成本,而对机构投资者交易成本的影响不显著。本研究为透明度对市场质量的影响提供了新的证据,并指出证券市场监管实践中应充分考虑相关政策对市场各参与者的不同影响。     

What explains trade costs? Institutional quality and other determinants

This paper investigates the impact of institutional quality on trade costs across 133 countries during 1995–2014. The results show that good institutional quality significantly reduces the three types of trade costs, that is, total trade costs, trade costs of agricultural goods, and trade costs of manufactured goods. Furthermore, the effect of institutional quality is significant in reducing trade costs with regard to the different trading country pairs, the different subperiods, the components of institutional quality, and the endogeneity issue. This paper contributes to the literature by confirming a significant and negative relationship between institutional quality and trade costs from a global perspective.     

Contribution of intangible costs to the economic burden of multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Background:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with a substantial economic burden resulting from direct medical costs associated with health and disability-related resource utilization and indirect costs relating to reduced productivity. However, reduced health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) may be associated with additional costs, often termed ‘intangible costs,’ that should be considered as part of the economic burden from the societal or patient perspectives.

Objectives:

To review the contribution of intangible costs to the overall economic burden of MS.

Methods:

Medline was searched through March 2010 for relevant articles that included the terms ‘multiple sclerosis’ in combination with ‘intangible costs,’ ‘QALY,’ ‘quality-adjusted life year,’ ‘willingness-to-pay,’ and ‘WTP.’ Other than the restriction that the articles were published in English, there were no other exclusionary criteria for the search. Identified references were hand-searched to determine if intangible costs were estimated.

Results:

Thirteen studies across ten countries were identified that estimated intangible costs based on the number of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) lost due to a reduction in HR-QOL multiplied by accepted willingness-to-pay (WTP) thresholds. Although absolute costs varied depending on thresholds used and year of evaluation, the intangible costs accounted for 17.5–47.8% of total costs of MS. Furthermore, evidence suggested intangible costs are positively correlated with worsening disability. The largest increase in intangible costs occurred at the transition between mild and moderate disability. However, since no value has been established as being acceptable to pay for a QALY, a limitation of these studies was their dependence on the definition of the WTP threshold.

Conclusions:

Intangible costs substantially add to the economic burden of MS. There is not only a need to further characterize these costs and incorporate them into economic studies, but also to determine how these costs can be reduced through appropriate management strategies.     

A NOTE ON MARKET COVERAGE IN VERTICAL DIFFERENTIATION MODELS WITH FIXED COSTS

With fixed costs of quality improvement, we find that a covered market outcome with an interior solution in the price stage is not a Nash equilibrium. When the degree of consumer heterogeneity is high (low) enough, an uncovered market outcome (a covered market outcome with a corner solution in the price stage) is the only Nash equilibrium. When the degree of consumer heterogeneity is moderate, both of the two market outcomes are Nash equilibria, but an uncovered market outcome yields higher social welfare than a covered market outcome with a corner solution in the price stage.     

OPTIMAL EXPORT AND HEDGING DECISIONS WHEN FORWARD MARKETS ARE INCOMPLETE

This paper examines the behaviour of the competitive firm that exports to two foreign countries under multiple sources of exchange rate uncertainty. There is a forward market between the home currency and one foreign country's currency, but there are no hedging instruments directly related to the other foreign country's currency. We show that the separation theorem holds when the firm optimally exports to the foreign country with the currency forward market. The full‐hedging theorem holds either when the firm exports exclusively to the foreign country with the currency forward market or when the relevant spot exchange rates are independent. In the case that the relevant spot exchange rates are positively (negatively) correlated in the sense of regression dependence, the firm optimally opts for a short (long) forward position for cross‐hedging purposes.     

Optimization of industrial production of feed blends by fuzzy multi-criteria programming methods

Abstract： This paper presents a model for optimizing industrial production of blend for livestock feed by application of a fuzzy multi-criteria programming method. This paper （1） considers multicriteria problem of industrial production of feed blend optimization in vague conditions, （2） proposes a fuzzy multiple criteria programming （FMCP） model for industrial production of feed blend optimization in vague conditions, （3） applies the proposed model in solving the concrete problem of industrial production of feed blend optimization and （4） points to the advantages of the model usage through sensitivity analysis of compromise solutions.